Methods and systems for providing on-line bills for use in communications services

ABSTRACT

A communications system provides a bill for services provided to a user of the system, to a display device via a network. The display device may be a personal computer and the network may be the Internet, for example. A plurality of users may be parties to an account with the system and an indicator of the one of the plurality of users requesting a service may be associated with an entry in the bill for the requested service. A bill for communications services requested by a first party with respect to a second party may include an indicator, such as a name and/or location information, of the second party. The user may also have an option of receiving a bill without indicators. Information about a second party associated with a requested service may be transferred to a contacts folder maintained by the communications system. Methods and systems are disclosed.

The present invention is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No.10/376,935, filed on Feb. 28, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,985,569, andapplication Ser. No. 10/403,207, filed on Mar. 31, 2003 now abandoned,which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and areincorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to communications systems and method, and, moreparticularly, to methods and system for providing bills forcommunications services, on-line.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is a common experience to use a telephone or similar device, andother such communications devices, to call a telephone operator forinformation assistance. In a typical information assistance call, acaller (customer) identifies to the operator the name and address, orsometimes city or area code, of a party whose telephone number isdesired. In response, the operator locates the desired destinationnumber using a computer database, for example. The destination numbermay be provided to the customer by a computerized voice server, and thecustomer may be afforded the option of being connected to thedestination number without the need to first terminate the informationassistance call.

Even though a customer may subscribe to a telephone service provided bya particular carrier, such as AT&T Wireless Services Inc., or brandingpartner, such as Virgin, the information assistance service systemaccessed through the telephone service may be contracted by the carrierto different independent contractors. Therefore, when a subscriber tothe carrier makes an information assistance call by dialing such typicalaccess digits as “411,” “*555,” “555-1212,” “00,” “1-800-555-1212,”etc., because of the contractual relationship, the carrier routes theinformation assistance call to its contracted information assistanceservice system to handle the information request.

Independent information assistance service providers may offer differentinformation assistance services and service features in addition todirectory assistance. For example, upon request, an operator may providea user with information on regional restaurants, movie listings,directions to various places, etc., as well as the ability to purchasegoods and services. The assignee of the present application is aninformation assistance service system which offers, among others,personalized services and special service features that are differentthan or lacking from other providers. For instance, one such servicefeature is a StarBack® service feature described in U.S. Pat. No.5,797,092, whereby a caller, after being connected to a desired party,may be connected back to the information assistance service system bypressing a “*” key on their telephone, or otherwise issuing a command(saying the word “operator”, for example). Examples of the assignee'spersonalized services include private directory assistance and foreignlanguage directory assistance, which are described, for example, in U.S.Pat. No. 5,966,437 and International Publication No. WO 01/35621.

When a customer is connected to an information assistance systemcontracted by the customer's carrier, the customer is typically billedfor information assistance services provided in the call and connectioncharges, through their carrier. These information assistance servicesinclude directory assistance and enhanced services, such as theaforementioned STARBACK® service. The connection charges include anyapplicable long distance and/or local toll charges (imposed by thecarrier), any airtime charges (imposed by the carrier), and any othercharges, such as paging and messaging charges, which are imposed orincurred when performing the information assistance service. Chargesimposed by the information assistance service system may be billed on aper call basis, or may be billed, depending upon a variety of factors,such as the duration of the information assistance/operator time, or theevent type or class of information searched.

Bills are typically compiled from event records, such as call detailrecords (“CDRs”), generated at a call center. For example, upon receiptof a directory assistance call, a carrier switch may generate a CDR anddirect the call to the contracted information assistance service system.A servicing switch at the information assistance service system maygenerate a CDR upon receipt of the call from the carrier switch. Each“event” during the course of a call may cause generation of a CDR by acomponent of the call center involved in that event. An “event” may beany activity at the call center related to handling of the call.Examples of events include receiving an information assistance call,queuing a call while waiting for an operator to become available,connecting the call to an available operator, conducting a search of adatabase for directory assistance or other services, activating a voiceresponse unit (VRU), connection to a destination number, etc. Thegeneration of CDRs for such events is described in application Ser. No.09/777,061, filed on Feb. 5, 2001, which is assigned to the assignee ofthe present invention and is incorporated by reference, herein.

The CDR or CDRs generated during a communication contain thecommunication related information necessary to compute a bill for thecommunication, such as call duration, toll connection, informationassistance service, and the type and/or class of information serviceprovided, to the extent that charges vary depending upon the type ofinformation service provided. CDRs are sent to a billing platform, whichcompiles the CDRs for each call and for calls for each customer. Thebilling platform may be at the carrier, information assistance servicesystem or a third party to generate a bill.

Typical bills for direct dial telephone services identify the date,time, called phone number and duration of the call, and the geographiclocation of the called party. Information assistance calls, which may beincluded in the same bill as direct dial calls provided by the carrier,may only include the date of the information assistance call. It mayalso include the requested phone number. If the information assistancecall is connected to the requested phone number, the date, time, phonenumber and geographic location of the called party, which may be anindividual or business, for example, will appear on the bill, as if thecall was dialed directly by the customer.

When a customer reviews a telephone bill, the customer may not recognizethe called number or remember who was called on a particular date at aparticular geographic location. Believing that they have been misbilled,the customer may call their carrier to request credit for the call.Often, the call was not misbilled, but much time and expense is accruedto clarify the situation. Perceptions by customers of being misbilled,even when erroneous, may also generate ill will. An improved system forhandling credit inquiries and processing credit requests is described inmore detail in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/160,415, filed on May 31,2002, assigned to the assignee of the present application andincorporated by reference herein.

U.S. patent application Publication US 2001/0017915 A1 (the '915Application), published on Aug. 30, 2001, describes a system and methodof creating a billing record including a called party's name, tofacilitate review of a bill by a customer. In the '915 Application, aphone number of a called party is extracted from an original eventrecord after a call is completed, by a billing system. A databasecorrelating phone numbers with corresponding parties' names is queriedto identify the name of a party associated with the called number. Amodified call record is then created including the party's name. Abilling record is created from the modified call record. This process isrepeated for each call in a billing time period to create a bill. Whileproviding a called party's name in a bill would eliminate some erroneousrequests for credit, the disclosed method is complex and may beexpensive to implement.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a method ofoperating a communications system for providing a service is disclosed,wherein a plurality of parties may be associated with an account withthe system to receive the service. The method comprises providing a billfor a service requested by one of a plurality of parties associated withan account and provided by the system, to a communications device via anetwork. The method further comprises providing an indicator or the oneparty requesting the service, in association with a respective entry forthe service. The one party may be identified, at least in part, based ona voiceprint of the one party received when the request was made and avoiceprint sample of the party stored by the system. The system may byan information assistance service system and the method may comprisereceiving a request for information assistance from the one party, withrespect to a second party. The service may be establishing acommunications connection between a first communication device of theone party and a second communications device of a second party and themethod may comprise receiving signals to establish a communicationsconnection between the first communications device and the secondcommunications device. The communications device may comprise a displayan the network may be the Internet.

In accordance with an aspect of this embodiment a communications systemfor providing a service is disclosed, wherein a plurality of parties maybe associated with an account with the system to receive the service.The system comprises an interface to a network and a processor coupledto the interface. The processor is programmed to provide a bill for aservice requested by one of a plurality of parties associated with anaccount and provided by the system, to a communications device via thenetwork. The processor is also programmed to provide an indicator of theone party requesting the service, in association with a respective entryfor the service in the bill. The processor may be programmed to identifya party based, at least in part, on a voiceprint of the party receivedwhen the request was made and a voiceprint sample of the party stored bythe system.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method ofoperating a communications system is disclosed, wherein the systemprovides a service for a first party with respect to a second party. Thefirst party is associated with an account with the system. The methodcomprises providing a bill for the account for a service provided to theaccount, to a communications device via a network and providing anindicator of the second party in association with an entry in the billfor the requested service. As above, the service may be informationassistance or call connection, for example. The method further comprisesproviding an option to either elect or suppress provision of theindicator. The option may be provided during registration with thesystem or via an activation point provided on the displayed bill, forexample. The indicator may be at least one of a name and locationinformation of the respective second party. Selected indicators ofrespective second parties may be suppressed.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method ofoperating a communications system is disclosed, wherein the systemprovides a service for a first party with respect to a second party. Thefirst party is associated with an account with the system and the systemstores contact information of the account in a contacts folder in adatabase. The method comprises providing a bill for the account for aservice provided to the account and storing information related to thesecond party in the folder. An indicator of the second party may also beprovided in association with an entry in the bill for the requestedservice. A plurality of first parties may be associated with an accountwith the system and the information may relate to contacts of arespective first party. The information may be stored in a respectivefolder. The respective first party requesting the service may beidentified and the information inserted into a respective folder forthat first party. The respective first party requesting the service maybe identified based, at least in part, on a voiceprint of the firstparty received when the request was made and a voiceprint sample of theparty stored by the system. The bill may be provided to a display devicevia a network.

In accordance with an aspect of this embodiment, a communications systemfor providing a service for a first party with respect to a second partyis disclosed, wherein the first party is associated with an account withthe system. The system comprises a database to store contactsinformation of accounts with the system in a folder associated with arespective account and a processor coupled to the database. Theprocessor is programmed to provide a bill for services provided to theaccount and to store contact information related to the second party inthe folder. The processor may also be programmed to provide a respectiveindicator of the second party in association with a respective entry forthe requested service in the bill for the service and to store contactinformation related to the second party in the folder. The bill may beprovided to a display device via a network.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method ofoperating a communications system is disclosed comprising establishing acommunication with a first party requesting a communications number of asecond party and processing the request for the communications number ofthe second party. The method further comprises generating an eventrecord related to the request during processing of the request. Theevent record includes an indicator of the second party. The methodfurther comprises providing a bill for the communication to acommunications device via a network. The bill is based, at least inpart, on the event record and includes the indicator of the second partyassociated with an entry for the communication. The indicator may be thename of the second party provided by the first party.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method ofoperating a communications system is disclosed comprising processing acommunication between a first communications device of a first partyinitiating a communication with a second communications device of asecond party. The method further comprises generating an event recordrelated to the communication, including an indicator of the secondparty, during processing of the communications connection. The methodfurther comprises providing a bill for the communication to acommunications device via a network. The bill is based, at least inpart, on the event record and includes the indicator of the secondparty. The indicator may be identified by searching a database for atleast one indicator associated with a communications number of thesecond communications device.

In accordance with an aspect of this embodiment, a communications systemfor establishing a communication is disclosed comprising an interface toreceive signals from a first communications device of a first party toprocess a communication with a second communications device of a secondparty and access a network. The system further comprises a processorprogrammed to generate an event record including an indicator of thesecond party, during processing of the communication; and to provide abill for the communication to a third communications device via anetwork. As above, the bill is based, at least in part, on the eventrecord and includes the at least one indicator of the second party.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method ofoperating a communications system is disclosed comprising receivingsignals from a first communications device of a first party seeking acommunications number of a second communications device of a secondparty. The method further comprises connecting the first communicationsdevice to an information assistance service to identify thecommunications number of the second communications device andestablishing a communication between the first communications device andthe second communications device after the communications number of thesecond communications device is identified. The method further comprisesinserting an indicator of the second party into an event recordgenerated by the communications system associated with connecting thefirst party to the second party, while establishing the communicationbetween the first party and the second party. A bill is provided for thecommunication to a third communications device via a network. As above,the bill is based, at least in part, on the event record and includesthe indicator of the second party.

In accordance with an aspect of this embodiment, a communications systemis disclosed comprising an interface to receive signals from a firstcommunications device of a first party calling an information assistanceservice system to obtain a communications number of a secondcommunications device of a second party and to access a network. Acontrol device coupled to the interface. The control device isprogrammed to connect the first communications device to the informationassistance service and process a communication between the firstcommunications device and the second communications device. The controldevice is also programmed to generate an event record of thecommunication between the first communications device and the secondcommunications device, during processing of the communication betweenthe first communications device and the second communications device,the event record including an indicator of the second party. The controldevice is also programmed to provide a bill for the communication to athird communications device via a network. As above, the bill is based,at least in part, on the event record and includes the indicator of thesecond party.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, a method ofoperating a communications system is disclosed wherein the systemidentifies a concierge provider of at least one of goods and services.The method comprises receiving a request for identification of aconcierge provider from a user. The request includes identification ofat least one of goods and services. The method further comprisesidentifying an appropriate concierge provider based on theidentification of the at least one goods and services. A bill isprovided for the service of identifying the concierge provider. The billincludes identification of the at least one goods and servicesassociated with an entry for the request for identification of theconcierge provider. The bill may be provided to a communications devicevia a network.

A party may set up a subscription account for a period of time or theparty may set up an account for a single transaction.

The terms “customers,” “users” and “subscribers” are usedinterchangeably in the description and claims to refer to partiesregistered to use the system. The terms may include a party who isresponsible for payment for use of the system pursuant to an accountwith the system and other parties the responsible party designates asbeing authorized to use the system under the responsible party'saccount. For example, the responsible party may authorize family membersto use the system under the account. A business may authorize particularemployees to use the system under the account.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an example of a communications system, here an informationassistance service system, including information assistance servicecenters (“IASCs”), an information hub and a billing platform, that mayimplement aspects of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an example of an IASC of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an example of a profile gateway of FIG. 2, in more detail;

FIG. 4 is an example of a voiceprint gateway of FIG. 2, in more detail;

FIG. 5 is an example of a method for identifying a requested party in acall detail record, accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 is an example of a CDR for a directory assistance call, includinga name and an address of a requested party, enabling insertion of a nameand/or address of a requested party, into a bill;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a carrier network and associated systems inanother embodiment of the invention, adapted to identify a called partyfor insertion into a CDR record;

FIG. 8 a is an example of a method for use by a carrier network, as inFIG. 5, for inserting an identification of a called party into a CDR;

FIG. 8 b is an example of another method for inserting an identificationof a called party into a CDR, for use by a carrier network, as in FIG.5;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a method of identifying initiating parties of acall among a plurality of parties associated with a multi-party account,in accordance with another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 10 is an example of a CDR including an identifier of an initiatingparty of a multi-party account, for use in the method of FIG. 9; and

FIG. 11 is a view of a bill for communications services provided by acommunications system, displayed on a monitor of a personal computer,for example:

FIG. 12 a is an example of a method in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention, to provide a bill including indicators of secondparties associated with the call and optionally identifying a party of amulti-party account initiating a call;

FIG. 12 b is an optional continuation of the method of FIG. 12 a; and

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of another configuration of an IASP in FIG.1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, in acommunications system where a plurality of users may be parties to anaccount with the system, an indicator of the one of the plurality ofusers requesting a service is associated with an entry in a bill for therequested service, and the bill is provided to a display device via anetwork. The display device may be a personal computer (“PC”) and thenetwork may be the Internet, for example. In accordance with anotherembodiment of the present invention, a bill for communications servicesrequested by a first party with respect to a second party includes anindicator of the second party, and is provided to a display device via anetwork. For example, in an information assistance call, where a firstparty calls an information assistance service system to request a phonenumber or other such communications number of a second party andoptionally be connected to the second party, an indicator, such as thename and/or address of the second party, is included in a bill for theinformation assistance call. The second party may be any entity, such asan individual or a business, for example. The first party may alsorequest the identity of a concierge provider in a geographic area. Inanother example, in a phone call or other such communication from afirst party to a second party, the name and/or address of the secondparty is included in an on-line bill for the call. A party may also havean option of not including the identifiers. In accordance with anotherembodiment of the invention, information about a second party related toan entry in a bill for communications services may be transferred to acontacts folder maintained by the communications system. The secondparty may be identified in the bill and the bill may be provided to adisplay device via a network, as well. Embodiments of the invention maybe used together or separately.

Providing indicators of the parties involved in communicationsfacilitates a customer's review of a bill, decreasing erroneous requestsfor credit. In accounts where multiple parties may be associated withthe same account and are commonly billed, identifying which partyinitiated a particular communication also facilitates bill review andmay decrease erroneous requests for credit. Providing such bills to theuser via a network further facilitates bill review, decreases the amountof paper sent to the customer and also facilitates the making ofrequests for credit by the customer, saving the customer time. It alsofacilitates implementations of options with respect to the informationincluded in the bill and other uses of such information.

FIG. 1 is an example of a communications system 10 implementingembodiments of the present invention. In this example, thecommunications system is an information assistance service system. Theinformation assistance service system 10 includes a plurality ofoperators dispersed throughout a wide coverage area in informationassistance service centers (“IASCs”) 22, 24, 26, 28. IASCs 22 through 28are coupled to each other and to one or more information hubs 30 througha network 40. IASCs 22 through 28 are also coupled to billing platform50 via network 40.

In this example, each of IASCs 22 through 28 covers one or more regionalcoverage areas. The network may be a wide area network (“WAN”) 40covering an extensive area, for example. WAN 40 can be an Internet-basednetwork, such as the World Wide Web, or a private intranet basednetwork. The information assistance service system may be accesseddirectly by a user on a wireline phone, wireless phone, personal dataassistant (“PDA”), personal information manager (“PIM”), Blackberry andother communications devices. While information assistance servicesystem 10 in this example includes a plurality of IASCs 21 through 27,the invention may be implemented in a system including a single IASCcoupled on information hub 30 and billing platform 50.

Information hub 30 may include one or more processors, such asinformation server 32, which is accessible by the operators in thesystem 10, and one or more memory devices, such as information database34, in which identifying information about each subscriber is stored andmaintained. Web server 36 is also shown, coupled to information server32. Web server 36 may be accessed by subscriber 38 via a personalcomputer (“PC”) 46 via a network, such as the Internet 48. PC 46, orother such device, may have a display 48 and one or more input devices,such as a mouse and keyboard, (not shown), for example.

User information may be in the form of individual subscriber folders foreach current subscriber account. Each subscriber account may include oneor more individual subscribers. For example, a single account mayinclude multiple members of a family or multiple employees of abusiness. Folders may be maintained for former subscriber accounts, aswell. Each folder may be associated with one or more communicationsidentifications of the respective subscriber's communications devicesthat the subscriber has registered with system 10 as part of theaccount. For example, the communications identification may be a phonenumber of a subscriber's wireline or wireless phone. The communicationsidentification may be an Automatic Number Identifier (“ANI”), forexample. The presence or absence of a subscriber folder corresponding toa phone number or other such identifying data may be used to indicatewhether a caller is a subscriber to the system or not.

The folder may include a user profile, as described in co-pendingapplication Ser. No. 09/865,230, filed on May 25, 2002 (“the '230application”), assigned to the assignee of the present invention andincorporated by reference herein. The user profile may containpreferences of the subscriber related to subscribed services, such aspreferred ways of being addressed, preferred language, preferred methodsof receiving information from system 10. Information server 32 mayinclude clock and calendar functions. The user profile may also containa voiceprint sample of the one or more subscribers associated with theaccount. The voiceprint sample may be compared to a voiceprint receivedfrom a caller to verify the identity of the caller, enabling greaterpersonalization of services, as described further, below.

The personal preferences in the user profile may be specified by asubscriber during registration with system 10 via a phone call, forexample, in response to registration questions posed by an operator or avoice response unit (“VRU”), for example. Personal preferences may alsobe entered and changed via a web page. A subscriber will typically alsoregister the phone number of each phone that may be used to call system10, and identify the type of phone as a wireline or wireless phone. Aphone that is used as a speakerphone may also be identified as such. Ina voiceprint capable system, verbal utterances of a subscriber to system10 may be collected during registration of the subscriber to derivevoiceprint samples, as well, which is also discussed further below.

If multiple parties are registering under the same account, each partymay establish a unique PIN and verbal utterances of each party may becollected and processed in turn. Each registered party may alsoestablish their own preferences, which may be stored in separate foldersor sub-folders associated with the respective PIN and/or voiceprint ofthat party to the account, as well as with the subscriber folder for theaccount. Each party to the account may thereby have a uniquelyidentified user profile. The subscriber folder and each of theassociated profiles or sub-profiles, is associated with the ANIs of thephones registered with the account. The information may be organized inother ways, as well.

A subscriber folder may include a private directory in the form of acontacts folder, for example. The folder may contain the name, addressand numbers of communications devices, such a phones, of parties towhich the subscriber would like ready access. Authorized parties mayenter contact information through one or more graphical user interfacesvia personal computer 42 and the Internet 46, for example. Suchdirectories are discussed in more detail in application Ser. No.09/441,656, filed on Nov. 12, 1999, which is assigned to the assignee ofthe present invention and is incorporated by reference herein.

Subscriber folders and other such information may also be stored locallyat one or more of the IASCs 22 through 28, as described in the '230application. Local storage may speed access to the information by arespective IASC 22 through 28. The folders and information at differentIASCs may be synchronized. Synchronized databases provide necessarybackup as well as support to roaming mobile device users.

Web server 36 is coupled to information server 32 and/or other servers.Subscriber account information, such as bills, and information aboutsystem 10 may be stored in web server 36. A subscriber may access system10 via a network, such as the Internet 46, via personal computer 42 orother such communications device, to access bills, change preferences,obtain information, etc. Access to system 10 may be at a predetermineduniform resource locator (URL) or website, for example. Such a websitemay be provided by web server 36 or by another server connected to theInternet 46. Web server 36 may be coupled to system 10 at otherlocations, as well.

Billing platform 50 may comprise a call detail record (“CDR”) database52, a billing compiler 54 and a billing server 56. Billing platform 50generates billing records, which may be bills or precursors to bills,from event records, such as call detail records (“CDRs”), generated byIASCs 22 through 28 to document the events occurring during a call. An“event” may be any activity at the call center related to handling ofthe call. Each “event” during the course of a call may cause generationof a CDR by a component of the call center involved in that event. Forexample, upon receipt of a directory assistance call, a carrier switchmay generate a CDR and direct the call to one of the IASCs 22 through28. Other examples of events that may cause generation of a CDR includequeuing a call while waiting for an operator to become available,connecting the call to an available operator, conducting a search of adatabase for directory assistance or other services, activating a voiceresponse unit (VRU), connection to a destination number, etc. Thegeneration of CDRs for such events is described in copending applicationSer No. 09/777,061, filed on Feb. 5, 2001, which is assigned to theassignee of the present invention and is incorporated by reference,herein. Billing platform 50 may be part of information assistanceservice system 10 or part of a network carrier. It may also be a thirdparty contracted to compile information for bills, contracted by system10.

The CDR or CDRs generated during a communication contain thecommunication related information necessary to compute a bill for thecommunication, such as call duration, toll connection, informationassistance service, and the type and/or class of information serviceprovided, to the extent that charges vary depending upon the type ofinformation service provided. CDRs are sent to billing platform 50,which compiles the CDRs for each call and for calls for each customer.

CDR database 52 collects and stores CDRs generated by IASCs 22 through28. Billing compiler 54 is a processor or computer that compiles CDRsrelated to the same call and to the same customer. CDRs related to thesame call may be identified by a common identification number assignedto each CDR by an IASC 22 through 28 handling a particularcommunication, as described below. CDRs related to the same subscriberaccount may be identified by the ANI of the phone registered with thesubscriber's account, for example, and incorporated in the CDR. Acustomer may have multiple phones with respective ANIs and/or othercommunications identifications registered with the account. Each ANI maycause generation of a separate bill or the charges for each phone may becompiled into a single bill. While a single CDR database 32, billingcompiler 34 and CDR server 36 are shown, it is understood that multipledatabases, compilers and servers may be used.

Billing server 56 generates a billing record, which may be a customerbill, or a precursor to a customer's bill, based on the compiled CDRs.Billing server 36 computes appropriate charges for each communicationbased on stored rate information and the CDRs, formats each bill andprints the bill to be mailed to a customer. An electronic bill may begenerated instead of or along with the printed bill, for being e-mailedor otherwise sent electronically to the customer. The bill may also bemade available through a website of the communications service, forexample, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, asdiscussed further below. Billing server 56 also stores the generatedbills and the underlying CDRs in appropriate memory (not shown) forlater reference.

Billing platform 50 may be part of information assistance service system10, part of a carrier, and/or it may be a third party. If billingplatform 50 is part of a third party, a precursor to a bill, a billingrecord, is typically generated by billing server 56. The billing recordis provided to information service system 10 for final formatting andpresentation to a customer, by mail, e-mail or through the website.While a single CDR database 32, billing compiler 34 and CDR server 56are shown, it is understood that multiple databases, compilers andservers may be used.

FIG. 2 is an example of an FASC 100 (generically representing each ofIASC 22 through 28), embodying the principles of one embodiment of theinvention. IASC 100 provides information assistance services and enablesthe name and/or address or other such indicator of a party called or aparty whose number is requested, to be provided in a billing record, inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention. IASC 100 includesinformation assistance service provider (“IASP”) 102 and servicingplatform 104. Servicing platform 104 may be part of or separate fromIASP 102. Servicing platform 104 may be located in the same geographicarea as or in a different geographic area than the associated IASP 102.

Servicing platform 104 includes an interface, such as a servicing switch106, and a switch host computer 108. Switch 106 is a conventional switchconnected via one or more external T1 links 110, including digital T1links, to one or more carrier networks (not shown in FIG. 1). T1 links110 may be voice, data or video connections through which incoming andoutgoing voice, data, and/or video communications can be made. Outgoingcommunications may be placed over the same or different carrier networksthan the carrier network on which the incoming communication wasreceived. Switch 106 includes digital signal processing circuitry(DSPs). Thus, switch 106 can be programmed and reprogrammed to functionas, among other things, call progress analyzers (CPAs), call progressgenerators (CPGs), multi-frequency (MF) tone generators/detectors,dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) generators/detectors, and/orconferencing units, depending upon the demand placed on IASP 102 andswitch 106 for each corresponding function.

Switch host computer 108 may be programmed to control the operation ofservicing switch 106, as well as the operation of the components of IASP102 described below. Switch host computer 108 includes memory 108 a.Switch host computer 108 and switch 106 may be private branch exchange(“PBX”) components. In FIG. 9, in contrast, an IASP 900 is shown withouta PBX switch and host computer.

IASP 102 includes operator devices, such as operator telephones 112 andoperator terminals 114, handled by a respective operator. Each terminal114 may include memory 114 a, and a monitor, mouse and keyboard withassociated dialing pad (not shown). Operator telephones 112 are coupledto channel bank 116 in IASP 102. Channel bank 110 is coupled to switch106 in servicing platform 104 via an internal T1 link 110.

Operator terminals 114 are coupled over data network 118 to databaseserver 120, which is coupled to directory assistance database 122. Whileonly one database server 120 and database 122 are shown in FIG. 2,multiple servers and/or databases may be provided. Terminals 114 aregenerally provided with web browsing capabilities, telephone facilitiesand fully-featured operator user interface applications, whichfacilitate the searching, retrieval and administering of database 122through database server 120.

Data network 118 includes, but is not limited to, a LAN. The LAN mayconnect to other similar remote LANs to form WAN 40 in FIG. 1. LANs maybe connected to one another and/or to the Internet via routers and/orother conventional means. Thus, data network 118 enables an operator toaccess public directory information, private directory information,and/or other information available over the Internet.

An operator may submit a request for a party's phone number (wireline orwireless), or other such communications number of a party'scommunications device, to database server 120 through operator terminal114. Database server 120 may search directory assistance database 122 inresponse to the request. If a number is located, it is retrieved bydatabase server 120.

If system 10 is voiceprint capable, IASP 102 may also include profilegateway 124 coupled to data network 118. Profile gateway 124 contactsinformation hub 30 to request information about a subscriber, such as asubscriber profile. Profile gateway 124 may comprise interface 126,processor 128 and memory 130, as shown in FIG. 3. Memory 130 heregenerically includes disks, caches and volatile and non-volatile memory.Subscriber profiles and profile gateway are discussed in more detail incopending application Ser. No. 09/865,230, filed on May 25, 2002, whichis assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporatedby reference, herein.

IASP 102 may also include voice service (VRU) 134, which is also coupledto data network 118. Voice server 134 plays the constantly repeatedparts of an operator's speech, namely, the various greetings andsignoffs (or closings), and the retrieved telephone number of the partyrequested by the customer, under the control of switch host computer107. Voice server 134 may also have voice recognition capability, sothat it can interpret verbal statements made by a customer. For example,instead of connecting a call to an operator, switch host computer 108may connect the call to voice server 134, which may request that thecustomer recite a requested party's name, as discussed further, below.

Voice server 134 may comprise a general purpose computer includingmemory 134 a and one or more voice cards for voice recognition, voicerecording and playback, and call progress analysis. Voice server 134 isconnected to servicing switch 106 via a T1 line 110. If more than oneVoice server 134 is provided, each one is connected to switch 106 via aseparate T1 link. Voice server 134 is also coupled to switch hostcomputer 108 through data network 118.

At appropriate stages in a call's progression, host computer 108initiates a voice path connection between voice server 134 and switch106, such that the customer or the customer and the operator are able tohear whatever pre-recorded speech is played on that connection by voiceserver 134. Computer 108 then instructs voice server 134, via datanetwork 118, what type of message to play, and passes data parametersthat enable voice server 134 to locate the message appropriate to thecall state.

In a voiceprint capable system, voiceprint gateway 136 is provided toreceive, record and digitize a voiceprint received from a caller.Voiceprints for use in developing a voiceprint sample or model forcomparison to later received voiceprints, are also received andprocessed initially by voiceprint gateway 136. Voiceprint gateway 136may be structurally similar to voice server 134 and their functions maybe combined. Voiceprint gateway 136 may play instructions to a caller,as well, such as asking the caller to repeat a passphrase/password, forexample, so that a voiceprint may be collected. Voice server 134 may becoupled to servicing switch 106 through voiceprint gateway 136, insteadof being directly connected to it, as shown in FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 4, voiceprint gateway 136 may comprise computer 138,such as a general purpose computer. One or more voice cards 140 andmemory 144 are coupled to computer 138. Voice card 140 may includedigitizer 142. As above, memory 144 generically includes disks, cachesand volatile and non-volatile memory. Voiceprint gateway 136 is coupledto servicing switch 106 via one or more T1 links 110 and to data network118. Voiceprint gateway 136 may be a LINUX server running suitable voicerecognition or speaker identification software. For example, thevoiceprint gateway 136 may run SpeechSecure™, available from SpeechWorksInternational, Inc., Boston Mass. Exemplary patents related to speechverification include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,519,561, 6,480,825, 6,038,528,5,862,519, 5,839,103, 5,634,087, and 5,634,087, which are incorporatedby reference, herein. Suitable software may also be obtained from NuanceCommunications, Inc., Menlo Park, Calif., for example.

Verbal utterances of a subscriber to system 10 may be collected duringphone registration of the subscriber (or at a later time) to derivevoiceprint samples. Voiceprint gateway 136 may be conferenced into thecall, and request the new subscriber to repeat a passphrase or passwordseveral times, such as three times, for example. The passphrase orpassword is recorded and digitized by voiceprint gateway 136. Thedigitized voiceprints are encapsulated in a Voice XML file and sent toinformation server 32 with instructions that the voiceprints are to beprocessed to form voiceprint samples. Information server 32, which alsoruns SpeechWorks(™) or other appropriate software, creates amathematical representation of the voiceprints to form a voiceprintmodel or sample, and stores the voiceprint sample. Voiceprint gateway136 or voice server 134 may process the voiceprints into voiceprintsamples, instead of or along with information server 32, as well.Preferably, the voiceprint sample is stored in information database 34as part of the subscriber profile in a folder for the new subscriber.Alternatively, voiceprints may be collected in a text independent modeas the subscriber responds to questions posed by the operator, voiceserver 134 or voiceprint gateway 136. Use of voiceprints incommunications systems, including derivation of voiceprint samplesthrough repetition of a passphrase/password in a text independent mode,is discussed in more detail in application Ser. No. 10/403,207, filed onMar. 31, 2003, which is incorporated by reference, herein. Thecollection of additional text independent voiceprints during subsequentconversations between a user and system 10 to derive voiceprint samplesis also discussed therein.

If multiple parties are registering under the same account, verbalutterances of each registered party may be collected and processed inturn. Each registered party may also establish other preferences, suchas how they wish to be addressed by the operator and what language theyprefer when dealing with system 10, for example. The voiceprint sampleidentifying information and preferences of each registered party to theaccount are preferably associated with separate subscriber profiles orsub-profiles within the subscriber folder associated with the account.The subscriber folder, and hence each of the profiles or sub-profiles,is associated with the ANI of the phones registered with the account.The information may be organized in other ways, as well.

The passphrase or password or the text independent verbal utterances, isrecorded and digitized by voiceprint gateway 136. The digitizedvoiceprints are represented by an XML file and sent to informationserver 32 with instructions that the voiceprints are to be processed toform voiceprint samples. Information server 32, which also runsSpeechWorks(™) or other appropriate software, creates a mathematicalrepresentation of the voiceprints to form a voiceprint sample, andstores the voiceprint sample. Preferably, the voiceprint sample isstored in information database 34 as part of the subscriber profile in afolder for the new subscriber.

To access IASC 100 of information assistance service system 10,customers of a particular telephone carrier or company may dial, speakor otherwise communicate the access digits, access codes or retailnumbers established for information assistance by that carrier to accessinformation assistance service system 10. For example, the predeterminedaccess digits may be “411,” “*555,” “555-1212,” “1-800-555-1212,” “00,”or other designated access numbers. Upon receiving such access digitsfrom a customer's communications device, the participating telephonecarrier's switching system routes the call to an IASC 100 of informationassistance service system 10 (via a T1 link), where it appears as anincoming call. Customers and other users of information assistanceservice system 10 may also call the system directly, in which case thecall is also received by servicing switch 106 along one of the T1 links110.

To connect a call to an IASC 100, a carrier network switch (not shown)of a participating carrier sends call setup signals containing dataconcerning the call, such as an ANI of the originating communicationsdevice, a dialed number identification service (DNIS) string identifyingthe dialed telephone number or other such communications number, thearea of the call's originating site, and/or a customer identificationnumber assigned by the carrier, to servicing switch 106. The receivedset-up signals are monitored and processed by switch host computer 108,which assigns a call sequence number to the call to uniquely identifythe call within the information assistance system 100. A CDR is createdfor each call by switch 106, based on this information.

System 10 uses several criteria to identify a caller as a subscriber tothe system before providing service to a subscriber. Preferably, atleast two criteria must be met to verify the identity of a caller as asubscriber. In one example, the first criteria is a phone number orother such identifier of a phone registered with system 10. Anidentifier in the call set-up signals, such as the ANI, is identifiedand if the phone is registered with an account with the system, thephone and the associated account is identified. The DNIS may also beused under certain circumstances, as discussed above. A caller may alsoinform an operator of system 10 of a phone number of a registered phone,verbally. For example, if a caller is not calling from a registeredphone, an operator or voice server 134 may request that the callerprovide a number of a registered phone. The caller is therebypreliminarily identified as a particular authorized user (if there isonly one user associated with the account), or as one of a limitednumber of authorized users associated with the account.

In this example, system 10 is a voiceprint capable system and the secondcriteria is the voiceprint of the caller. To verify that the caller isthe preliminarily identified user or to identify the caller as aparticular one of several authorized users, a voiceprint of the calleris compared with a stored voiceprint sample or samples of authorizedusers associated with the account to determine if there is an acceptablematch.

In this example, if a voiceprint sample is not available or ifvoiceprint analysis is not conclusive, a third criteria may be otheridentifying information, such as a PIN, the user's mother's maiden name,etc. Preferably, either the first and second or the first and thirdcriteria are used to verify identity. It is preferred not to use thesecond and third criteria together to verify identity. If system 10 isnot voiceprint capable, the PIN is used as the second criteria and otherinformation, such as mother's maiden name, may be used as a thirdcriteria. This verification process will now be described in moredetail.

To preliminarily identify the caller as a subscriber, switch hostcomputer 106 may extract the ANI from the call setup signals andtransmit the ANI to components of IASC 100, including profile gateway124, through data network 118. Interface 126 of profile gateway 124 mayreceive the ANI and convey the ANI to processor 128. Processor 128 thenrequests information server 32 of information hub 30 (see FIG. 1) for asubscriber folder associated with the ANI or other such identifier inthe call set up signals, via WAN 40. Information server 32 then searchesinformation database 20 for such a subscriber folder. If a folder isfound, it is sent to profile gateway 124, via WAN 40. The folder may bestored in memory 130.

If there is only one subscriber associated with the subscriber folder(and associated account), then system 10 preliminarily identifies thecaller as that subscriber. If there are multiple parties associated withthe folder (account), then system 10 has preliminarily identified thecaller as one of those multiple parties.

The call may then be directed to an operator device, such as operatortelephone 112 and operator terminal 114 of an available operator, byswitch 106 under the control of switch host computer 108. Information inthe subscriber folder, such as the subscriber's name and preferences, ismade available to an operator from profile gateway 124 via theirrespective terminal 116.

Automatic call distribution (ACD) logic, which may reside in switch hostcomputer 108 or elsewhere in system 100, may be used to queue (ifnecessary) and distribute calls to available operators at operatordevices in the order in which they are received, to evenly distributethe call traffic among the operators. Other distribution logic schemesmay be used, instead, such as skills-based routing or a priority schemefor preferred callers.

To confirm the identity of the caller as the preliminarily identifiedsubscriber, or to identify the caller as one of the multiple parties tothe account, the operator may ask for a PIN or other such identifyinginformation. If system 10 is voiceprint capable, the operator may askthe subscriber to state their passphrase or password to verify theiridentity. Voiceprint gateway 136, which may be conferenced into thecall, receives and digitizes the passphrase or password to form thevoiceprint. The voiceprint is encapsulated within a Voice ExtensibleMarkup Language (“Voice XML”) file and sent to information server 32with instructions to compare the voiceprint to the voiceprint sample ormodel in (or associated with) the subscriber folder in informationdatabase 34 identified through the ANI (and already provided to profilegateway 124). The digitized voiceprint is compared to the voiceprintsample to yield a statistical measure of the correspondence between thetwo. The measure may be a confidence score, for example, indicative ofthe degree of correspondence between the received voiceprint and thestored voiceprint sample. The confidence score may be compared to athreshold to determine if the degree of correspondence is sufficient toconclude that the voiceprint and the voiceprint sample are from the sameparty, with an acceptable degree of certainty. If a score is below thethreshold, the identity of the caller as a particular subscriber is notconfirmed. The operator may then ask the caller for other information toconfirm their identity, such as a PIN, name, address, mother's maidenname, etc. Voiceprint gateway 136 or voice server 134 may also comparethe voiceprint to the voiceprint sample and compare the resultingconfidence score to the threshold.

An upper and a lower threshold may be provided defining three ranges. Ifthe confidence score is greater than or equal to the upper threshold,the identity of the caller as a particular subscriber is confirmed. Ifthe confidence score is below the lower threshold, the test is failedand service will not be provided, unless the caller provides additionalinformation to satisfy the operator that the caller is who they purportto be. For example, the caller could provide a name, PIN and mother'smaiden name. If the confidence score is greater than or equal to thelower threshold but less than the upper threshold, the results areambiguous and the operator, voice server 134 or voiceprint gateway 136may ask the caller to repeat the passphrase/password or provide otherinformation, such as a PIN. On a scale of 0.0 through 1,000.0, the upperthreshold may be 600 and the lower threshold 350, for example.

If there is only one subscriber to an account, then the voiceprintreceived from the caller need only be compared to the one voiceprint ofthat subscriber. In this case, the voiceprint verifies the identity ofthe subscriber, who has been preliminarily identified based on the ANIor other such identifier of the subscriber's phone.

If there are multiple parties to the account, such as family members oremployees of a business, there may be multiple voiceprint samples in orassociated with the account. The received voiceprint may be compared toeach voiceprint sample and the identity of the caller may be determinedbased on the voiceprint sample with the highest confidence score greaterthan or equal to the threshold. Multiple thresholds may be used, asdescribed above. In this way, a caller may be identified withoutrequiring input of a PIN or other such information.

If a subscriber is calling from a public phone or another party's phonewho is not a subscriber to system 10, the ANI of the phone will not becorrelated with a subscriber account. In that case, the operator, voiceserver 134 or voiceprint gateway 136 may then have to ask foridentifying information, such as the caller's name or phone number ofthe phone registered with the system. The caller's voiceprint may thenbe used to verify the identity of the caller. Further information may berequested to verify the identity of the caller, such as the user's PIN,password, mother's maiden name, etc. The voiceprint may then be used, ifdesired, to provide further verification that the caller is thesubscriber corresponding to the PIN, etc.

If the caller is using another subscriber's phone, then the system willpreliminarily identify the caller as that other subscriber. Thevoiceprint of the caller should not, however, sufficiently correspond tothe voiceprint of the other subscriber and the identity of the caller asthe subscriber will not be verified. Again, the operator, or voiceserver 134 or voiceprint gateway 136 may then ask the caller for thecaller's name and/or phone number of a registered phone. The voiceprintand/or other identifying information may then be used to verify theidentity of the caller, as discussed above.

Voiceprints work best in identifying one out of a limited number ofparties. In most cases, the ANI will narrow the class of probablecallers to the one or limited number of parties associated with anaccount. The voiceprint of the caller may then be used to readily andquickly verify the identity of the one party or determine which one of alimited number of parties is the caller. If there are too many partiesassociated with the account to match a voiceprint in a reasonable amountof time, it may still be necessary for an operator or voice server 132to intervene and request additional information. A voiceprint may becompared to up to about 25 voiceprint samples in a reasonable amount oftime with acceptable accuracy for a typical information assistancesystem, for example.

After verification of the identity of the subscriber, the operator mayaddress the subscriber by the name found in the subscriber folder. Thesubscriber may then request information assistance, such as the phonenumber and/or address, of a party. The subscriber may also make aconcierge request for the identity (the name, address, and phone numberfor example) of a provider of particular goods and services, includingfood and entertainment services.

The operator may enter the name of the requested party into a field of agraphical user interface (“GUI”), which may be a form template appearingon the display of the operator's terminal 116, through a keyboard orother such input device. The entered name is stored in memory 114 a in alocation corresponding to the name field of the GUI. The operatorsubmits the requested party's name to database server 120 via datanetwork 118 by clicking on a button or tab on the screen or depressing akey on the keyboard. Database server 120 stores the name in memory 108 aand conducts a search of directory database 122 for a communicationsnumber associated with the name. The name may be stored in switch hostcomputer memory 108 a when the name is submitted to database server 120,as well. Database server 120 may not find a communications numbercorresponding to the exact name given by the customer, in database 122.The name might be in a different form. For example, in the database,only the first initial of the first name may be stored with the lastname. The customer may give a nickname instead of the full first name,as well. Database server may store the name as it appears on thedatabase in memory 120 a, as well as the name given by the customer. Thename inserted into the CDR, and ultimately the bill, is preferably thename given by the customer, which is input to IASC 100 and stored inmemory. Alternatively, the name as it appears in the database may beused, instead. In that case, the name may be retrieved from thedatabase, stored in memory and copied into an event record.

If a phone number or other such communications number corresponding tothe requested party's name is found, the number may be stored in memory120 a and may then be sent to the requesting operator terminal 114 bydatabase server 120. The retrieved number may be stored in memory 114 aand displayed on the operator's monitor. The customer may be verballyinformed of the number by the operator. Alternatively, the number may beprovided to voice server 134 via switch host computer 108, and stored inmemory 134 a. Voice server 134 may then generate a message reciting thenumber. The name may be input by a customer using a keypad on theircommunications device, as well.

The information assistance call may then be terminated or the customermay be given the option of being connected with the communicationsnumber (i.e. telephone number) of the requested party, as is known inthe art. The option may be presented by the operator or by voice server134. The customer may accept the option by a verbal indication to theoperator or voice server 134 or by entry of data through the customer'sphone or other communications device. Entry of data may involvedepression of one or more particular keys on a keypad of thecommunications device, for example. If the call is connected to therequested party, servicing switch 106 may send call setup signals forthe call, including the requested party's number as a DNIS, to a carrierswitch for connection to the requested party. Alternatively, system 10may connect the call to the requested party via servicing switch 106.The information assistance call is completed. The connection between thecustomer and system 10 may be terminated or it may be maintained inorder to provide additional information assistance via the well-knownStarBack® feature.

Instead of connecting the call to an operator at an operator device,switch host computer 108 may connect the call to voice server 134 torequest verbal input of a requested party's name or concierge requestand/or to present other options, as is known in the art. If voice server134 can identify the name, the name is stored in voice server memory 122 a and conveyed to data server 120 via data network 118, to conduct asearch, as described above. If voice server 122 cannot identify therequested party's name, the call is connected to an operator device byswitch host computer 108 for handling by an operator.

To make a concierge request, the subscriber may request the identity ofa provider of a particular good or service, such as a provider of men'sclothing or a movie theater in a particular area. The operator mayinsert the request into another field of the GUI, or use a differentGUI, to input the request. The request may be similarly stored andprovided to database server 120 to conduct a search of directoryassistance database 122. Directory assistance database 122, which may bea typical directory assistance database, may be augmented to includeinformation to address concierge requests, as well.

As discussed above, each component of IASC 100 involved in an “event” oractivity may generate an event record or CDR to document the event andprovide data for billing. For example, when a communication is received,servicing switch 106 may generate a CDR, under the control of switchhost computer 108. When the communication is connected to an operatortelephone 112 and terminal 114, terminal 114 or switch host computer 107may generate a CDR. If the call is queued, switch host computer 108 maygenerate a CDR. When the operator sends a search request such as asearch for a phone number corresponding to a requested party's name,terminal 114 may generate a CDR. When database service 120 conducts asearch, database server 120 may generate a CDR. Generation of multipleevent records is discussed in application Ser. No. 09/777,061, filed onFeb. 5, 2001, assigned to the assignee of the present invention andincorporated by reference, herein.

A CDR may include an indicator of the requested party, such as therequested party's name and/or address, facilitating generation of a billincluding the indicator. CDRs are generated by multiple respectivecomponents of IASC 100, as described above and in application Ser. No.09/777,061, or only one CDR is generated, such as by servicing switch106. If multiple CDRs are generated by multiple components of IASC 100,any one including an indicator of the requested party may be used toprovide the requested party's name to billing platform 30. An originalCDR may be generated including a name field. The name field may bepopulated, along with other fields of the CDR, when the CDR is firstgenerated. The generation and population of the CDR may take place inreal-time, while the communication is being handled by IASC 100. It isnot, therefore, necessary to modify a CDR later, during bill processing,as in the prior art. In other words, an indicator, such as a name and/oraddress, may be inserted into an original CDR.

An example of a method for inserting an identifier of a party that isthe subject of an directory assistance search, will now be describedwith respect to the flowchart 200 of FIG. 5. Upon receipt of a requestfor the phone number of a party from the customer, the name of arequested party is stored in step 202. The name may be stored in memory114 a when the operator enters the requested party's name into a fieldof a GUI, through a keyboard or other such input device, for example. Ifthe communication is being handled by voice server 134, the requestedparty's name may be stored in voice server memory 134 a.

A search for the requested party's phone number or other suchcommunications number is conducted in step 204. A request for a party'saddress may also be made. For example, the operator may submit therequested party's name entered in the GUI to database server 120 viadata network 118 by clicking on a button or tab on the GUI or bydepressing a key on the keyboard. If the requested party's name has beensubmitted to voice server 134, the name may be conveyed from voiceserver memory 134 a to data server 120 via data network 118. The namemay be stored in memory 120 a in database server 120, which thenconducts a search of directory database 122.

The number of the requested party is stored in step 206. For example,the number may be initially stored in memory 120 a of database server120. It may then be conveyed via data network 118 to memory 114 a in theoperator terminal 114 and displayed to the operator, or to memory 134 ain voice server 134, for example. The number may also be conveyed tomemory 108 a in switch host computer 108.

The customer is informed of the number in step 208. The customer may beinformed verbally by the operator, who may read the number displayed atterminal 114, or by a message generated by VRU 122.

After the number of the requested party is provided to the customer instep 208, the customer may be given the option of being connected withthe located number, in step 210. The option may be presented by theoperator or voice server 134. The customer may select one of the optionsby a verbal indication to the operator or voice server 134 or by entryof data through the customer's phone or other communications device.Entry of data may involve depression of one or more particular keys on akeypad of the communications device, for example.

If the customer accepts the option, the call is connected to the number,in step 212, via a carrier network, as is known in the art. Thecommunication with IASC 100 is terminated and the requested party's namemay be inserted into a CDR, in step 214. The operator may terminate thecommunication by clicking on a COMPLETE button or tab on the GUI ordepressing a key on the keyboard, for example. The communication betweenthe customer and the IASC 100 is then disconnected. In step 214, therequested party's name may be transferred from the field in the GUI to aname field in the CDR upon the operator's indication of the completionof the communication or upon the disconnection of the communication, byterminal 114 or switch host computer 108.

If the customer declines the option of being connected to the requestedparty in step 210 or if the system does not offer that option, the callis terminated and the requested party's indicator, such as their nameand/or address, may be inserted into a CDR in step 214 by switch 106,for example, as discussed above.

The requested party's name may be inserted into a CDR at other steps inthe process, in addition to or instead of in step 214. For example, ifthe components of IASP 100 have the capability of generating CDRs, asdescribed in application Ser. No. 09/777,061, described in more detailabove, operator terminal 114 or voice server 134 may copy the requestedparty's name from memory 114 a or 122 a, respectively, into a CDR underthe control of switch host computer 108, after the requested party'sname is stored in step 202. Database server 120 may copy the requestedparty's name from memory 120 a into a CDR during documentation of theconducting of a search or the retrieval of a number, after step 204 orstep 205. Database server 120 may copy the requested party's addressfrom database 120 a into memory 120 a and into a CDR, as well. Switchhost computer 108 could also acquire the requested party's name, storeit in memory 108 a and copy it into a CDR at any point.

The CDR is sent to a billing platform in step 216. As discussed above,the billing platform, such as billing platform 30, may be part of theinformation assistance service system 10, a carrier or a third party.

As discussed above, billing platform 30 may generate final bills orprecursors to bills. Information assistance service system 10 may offerto provide billing entries with indicators, such as a party's nameand/or address, as an option to customers. Customers may select anoption among the following, for example: 1) providing both name andaddress, 2) providing the name or address, 3) providing anotherindicator or 4) providing no indicators. The customer may make such aselection during registration or any time after that. The customer maychange their selection at any time. Based on the option selected by thecustomer, information assistance service system 10 may format a billinto a final form.

After the call is connected to the requested party via a carrier networkin step 212, the carrier network will also generate CDRs related to thecall. IASC 100 may pass the name and/or address of the requested partyto the carrier network, along with the requested party's communicationnumber, in the call setup signal stream typically provided by IASC 100to the carrier network to enable call connection, via switch 106. Thename and/or address may also be provided to the carrier network by IASP100, via an Internet Protocol Detail Record (“IPDR”), sent via databasenetwork 118, which the carrier network can correlate with the CDRs itgenerates. For example, the IPDR and CDRs generated by the carriernetwork may be correlated through the ANI of the customer and the timeand date of the call and/or the call sequence number assigned to thatcommunication. Alternatively, the carrier network may acquire the nameand/or address of the party to whom the call is being connected bysearching a database, as discussed below.

As mentioned above, the customer may be connected back to theinformation assistance service system in accordance with the Starback®Service offered by the assignee of the present invention and describedin U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,092, for example, which is assigned to theassignee of the present invention and is incorporated by referenceherein. CDRs would typically be generated to document the connectionback to the system. If the customer requests a new search for acommunications number associated with a third party, CDRs may begenerated including an indicator associated with the third party, suchas a name and/or address of the third party, by repeating the steps ofmethod 200.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a CDR 400 that may be generated by IASC100 to document an information assistance search during an informationassistance call. The CDR may include multiple fields describing aninformation assistance communication. Specifically, EVENT_MONITOR_IDfield 402 contains a sequence of alphanumeric characters uniquelyidentifying CDR 400. SUBSCRIBER_MDN field 404 identifies the telephonenumber of the customer who made the information assistance call, i.e.,the automatic number identification (ANI). IN_SPAN field 406 identifiesthe T1 span 110 transporting the incoming communication of theinformation assistance call.

EVENT_CLASS_ID field 408 is an optional field that may be used toidentify a class of an event where CDRs are generated for multipleevents, as described in application Ser. No. 09/777,061, discussedabove. For example, the value “30” in field 211 in this instance,corresponds to a SEARCHES class. Other values for field 211 maycorrespond, e.g., to CALL PROCESSING, VALUE ADDED SERVICE and LOCALSERVICES classes. Another field, here EVENT_TYPE_ID field 410, specifiesone of the event types within the class identified by the value in field408. For example, the value “105” in field 410 in this instance,corresponds to a search for a number of a requested party event withinthe SEARCHES class. Similarly, other values for field 410 correspond todifferent types of events in an identified class.

CDR_CALL_SEQ_NMBR field 412 contains a sequence number identifying theinformation assistance call in question. If multiple event records aregenerated in the same information assistance communication to documentdifferent events taking place during the communication, as described inapplication Ser. No. 09/777,061, for example, they would share the samevalue in field 412. In that way, billing compiler 34 may identify andcompile event records related to the same communication, as discussedabove. Sequence numbers are generated and assigned by switch hostcomputer 107, when the information assistance call is initially receivedby service switch 106. Host computer 107 then transmits the sequencenumber to switch 106, and any other component in IASC 100 that maygenerate an event record. For example, the sequence number for a callmay be transmitted to operator terminal 114, voice response unit 122 anddatabase server 120 to be incorporated in any CDR they generate, forthat particular call.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, NAME field 414contains a name of a requested party. As discussed above, terminal 114,database server 120, VRU 134 and/or switch host computer 108 maygenerate a CDR and populate NAME field 414. If the service provided bysystem 10 was responding to a concierge request, an identifier of theconcierge request, such as the type of goods or services requested orthe name of the identified provider, may be inserted into NAME field414. Alternatively, a separate field may be provided to identifyconcierge requests.

IN_CHANNEL field 416 identifies the channel (within the T1 spanidentified by IN_SPAN field 406 described above), which the incomingcommunication of the information assistance call traverses. OUT_SPANfield 418 identifies the T1 span transporting the outgoing communicationof the information assistance call, if any. OUT_CHANNEL field 420identifies the channel (within the T1 span identified by field 418)which the outgoing communication of the information assistance calltraverses, if the communication is connected to the requested party'scommunications number, for example.

An optional ADDRESS field 422 may contain the address of the requestedparty. CITY field 424 contains the name of the city, such as New York,in which the requested party is located. STATE field 426 contains thename of the state in which the requested party is located. CARRIER_IDfield 428 identifies the network carrier used to connect the call. Forexample, the value “79” in field 424 identifies AT&T Corp. as thecarrier in this instance. DATA_SOURCE_ID field 430 identifies thecomponent of IASC 100 generating record 400. EVENT_START_TIME field 432indicates the start time of the communication event in question. Itshould be noted that the value in field 432 corresponds to a UNIX“epoch” time, i.e., the number of seconds elapsed from Jan, 1, 1970.Similarly, EVENT_END_TIME field 434 indicates the end time of the eventin question. Thus, with such event start and end times, the duration ofthe event in question can be determined, which may be used in computingcharges for that call. OPERATOR_LOGIN_ID field 436 identifies theoperator handling the event. The REQUESTED_PARTY'S_NUMBER field 438 maycontain the retrieved number of the requested party.

Records of events which occurred in a call may be correlated by the samesequence identification number, such as CDR_CALL_SEQ_NMBR field 412 inFIG. 4, identifying the call. Each information assistance call isassociated with customer information, such as ANI or SUBSCRIBER_MDNfield 404 information as shown in FIG. 4, and/or a customeridentification number assigned by the carrier.

Other fields, different fields and fewer fields may be provided in CDR400, as desired or needed by the communications system. CDR 400 includesall information necessary for computation of charges by billing platform50 for each call, so that bill processing may be readily performed.

IASC 100 may readily insert a terminating party's name into a CDR, suchas CDR 400, since the requested party's name is provided by thecustomer. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a system enabling a telephonecarrier network, such as Verizon Communications, which also generatesCDRs to document events in processing communications between parties, toidentify and convey an indicator of the called party, such as the calledparty's name and/or address, into a CDR during processing of acommunication, in accordance with another embodiment of the invention.In that way, telephone bills itemizing calls made through the carriermay also include the called party's name in the bill.

Carrier network 502 includes carrier switch 504 and control device 506with memory 506 a. Control device 506 may be a computer or processor,for example. Carrier switch 504 is connected through a data connection508 to DIP database system 510, which provides a name and/or address ofa party corresponding to a given communications number, upon request.DIP database system 510 includes an interface 512, an engine 514 withmemory 514 a and a database 516. DIP database system 510 may be part ofthe carrier network 502 or may be a third party system.

Database 516 correlates communications numbers, such as phone numbers,with the names of party's associated with respective numbers, and theiraddresses. It may be a directory assistance database, for example. Whilea directory assistance database is typically adapted to be searched fora communications number associated with a given name, database 516 mayalready be adapted to, or may readily be adapted to, be searched for aname associated with a communications number (“reverse search”).Requests for a name and/or address associated with a communicationsnumber are received by interface 512 and conveyed to engine 514, wherethe name and address are stored in memory 514 a. Engine 514 searchesdatabase 516 for a name and/or address associated with the number.Engine 514 may be a processor, computer or server, for example.

Identified names and/or addresses are provided from DIP database 516 toengine 514, which stores the indicator in memory 514 a and provides theindicator to carrier switch 504 via interface 512 and data connection508. The indicator may be stored in memory 506 a, for example. Carrierswitch 504 typically generates an event record, such as a CDR, under thecontrol of control device 506. In accordance with this embodiment of theinvention, the party's name and/or address stored in memory 506 a iscopied into an appropriate field in the CDR.

This process preferably takes place as carrier switch 504 connects thecalling party to the communications number of the called party. The CDRin FIG. 6 may be readily modified by eliminating inapplicable fields andadding new fields for use as a CDR in a carrier network system.

Billing platform 518 is coupled to originating switch 504. Billingplatform 514, which may have the same configuration as billing platform50 in FIG. 1, collects, stores and compiles CDRs and generates billsbased on the CDRs, as discussed above. Billing platform 518 may be partof carrier network 502 or may be part of a third party contracted to dobilling for the carrier, as is known in the art. Switch 504 sends theCDR to billing platform 518 after the call is connected.

An example of a method for a carrier network to identify a called party,is described with respect to flowchart 600 of FIG. 8 a. After carriernetwork 502 receives a communication, such as a telephone call,processing of a connection between the calling party and the calledparty is initiated in step 602.

As the connection is being processed, a search is conducted for thecalled party's name and/or address, in step 604. For example, switch 504may provide the communications number of the called party to a searchengine, such as engine 514 in FIG. 5, through an interface 512. Thecommunications number may be a DNIS derived from the call setup signals,for example. Engine 514 searches database 516 for a party's name and/oraddress associated with the communications number of the called party.If the party's name and/or address is found, either or both are providedto switch 504 through engine 514 and interface 512.

The called party's name and/or address is then inserted into a CDR, instep 606. For example, switch 504 may insert the name into a name fieldof a CDR generated by the switch for that communication and insert theaddress into the address-related fields 422, 424, 426, under the controlof control device 506.

Processing of the communication is completed and the call is connectedin step 608. After the call is connected, the CDR is sent to a billingplatform, such as billing platform 518, in step 610.

As mentioned above, database 516 may be an information assistancedatabase, adapted to retrieve party's names and/or addresses based oncommunications numbers. DIP database system 510 may therefore be part ofan information assistance service system, such as system 10 of FIG. 1.In that case, engine 514 may be database server 120 and database 516 maybe directory assistance database 121 in IASP 102 of FIG. 2. An interface(not shown) may be provided for the carrier network 502 to accessdatabase server 120. The method of FIG. 8 a may be implemented if thedatabase system 510 is part of the carrier, part of system 10 or part ofanother third party.

Bill processing may be readily performed, including insertion of aterminating party's name, with the CDR, as discussed above.

Another example of a method for a carrier network to identify a calledparty is described with respect to flowchart 650 in FIG. 8 b. Signalsare received to establish a communication between a first communicationsdevice of a first party and a second communications device of a secondparty, in step 652. For example, call set-up signals may be receivedfrom the first communications device of the first party, who isinitiating a call to a second communications device of a second party.

The communications number of the second communications device is derivedin step 654. The communications number may be a DNIS in the call set-upsignals, for example.

The derived communications number is submitted to a database todetermine the second party's name and/or address, in step 656. Thedatabase may correlate communications numbers with respective parties'names and addresses. The database may be a directory assistance databasethat is part of a carrier network 502, part of an IASP 102 ofinformation assistance service system 10 or a database system 510 ofanother third party.

If a name and/or address is retrieved from the database, it is insertedinto a CDR or other such event record, in step 658. The name may bestored in memory 506 a and copied into the CDR by carrier switch 504under control of control device 506 or by control device 506 itself.

The CDR is then sent to a billing platform, such as billing platform518, in step 660. This method may take place while the communicationconnection is being established.

A PIN provided by a caller may be used to identify a party of amulti-party account for billing and other purposes. Use of a PIN may beproblematic, however, as customers often forget their PIN and themultiple parties to the account might share the same PIN. Identificationof one of a plurality of parties to an account may be facilitated by theuse of voiceprints. When a particular party of an account includingmultiple parties calls system 10, that individual may be identified bytheir voiceprint. Once identified, an identifier of the individual maybe inserted into a call detail record (“CDR”) for that communication. Asingle identifier may be used to identify several parties (such as thechildren in a family), while other parties (such as each parent) mayhave a separate identifier. This may be a preference established by thesubscriber responsible for the account.

As discussed above, the CDR is provided to billing platform 50, whichcorrelates other CDRs for the same call, as well as CDRs for other callsattributed to a particular account, in preparation for bill generation.In a bill for a joint account, calls attributable to each party to theaccount are thereby identified and may be listed separately. Theidentifier of each individual may be a name of the subscriber, anickname, a PIN or other such number assigned to or selected by eachsubscriber, a phone number of the phone used to call the system or adepartment number of a business, for example. The identifier may beinserted into a CDR by voiceprint gateway 132, for example. The billingplatform may be part of the system 10, a network carrier or part of athird party, as discussed above.

FIG. 9 is an example of a method in accordance with this embodiment ofthe invention. The account associated with a caller is identified, inStep 702. As discussed above, the account may be identified based on theANI in the call-setup signals. A voiceprint of the caller is received,in Step 704, by voiceprint gateway 136, for example. If there aremultiple parties associated with the account, the identity of the calleris determined based on the voiceprint, in Step 706, as described abovewith respect to method 600 (FIG. 6 a), for example. An identifier of thecaller is then inserted into a CDR, in Step 708, by voiceprint gateway136, for example.

A standard CDR may be readily modified to include a field for such anidentifier. FIG. 10 shows CDR 800 that may be generated by voiceprintgateway 136 and IASC 100, for example, to document an identification ofa subscriber of a voiceprint information assistance search during aninformation assistance call. All the fields of CDR 800 are common to thefields of CDR 400 of FIG. 4, and are commonly numbered, except forIDENTIFIER field 814, which replaces NAME field 414. In accordance withthis embodiment of the invention, IDENTIFIER field 814 contains anidentifier of the party calling the system in that call. As describedabove, when there are multiple parties to an account, such as familymembers or business employees, the individual making the call may beidentified by their voiceprint. If system 10 is not voiceprint capable,a PIN or other identifying information may be used to identify theparticular caller. The identifier inserted into the CDR may be the name,nickname or password of the calling party, or a business department ordivision, etc. A CDR can include both NAME field 414 and IDENTIFIERfield 814, as well.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the bill for servicesprovided by system 10, including an indicator of a second party relatedto the provision of the service, may be provided to an authorized partythrough a communications device, via a network. The network may be theInternet 46, for example. The network may be a WAN or a LAN, as well.The communications device may be a personal computer (“PC”), such as PC42 in FIG. 1, which has Internet access or access to another suchnetwork. Other communications devices with access to the Internet orother such networks may be used, as well.

In the context of information assistance, an indicator of a party forwhom information assistance is requested is provided in the bill,associated with an entry for the request. In the context of a conciergerequest, an indicator of the identified provider of the goods/servicesor the subject matter of the request (suits, for example), is associatedwith an entry for the request in the bill. In the context of callconnection, an indicator of the called party is provided in the bill, inassociation with the entry in the bill for the call connection.

FIG. 11 a is an example of a bill 820 for telephone/informationassistance services provided to a first party who is seeking informationassistance with respect to a second party, displayed on monitor 48 of PC42, for example. The first party may call a carrier network thatconnects the first party to information assistance service system 10, orthe first party may call system 10 directly. The second party may be anyentity, such as an individual or a business. Entries 822 through 830 areindicative of respective requests for communications services. Therequest may be a request for information assistance, such as a requestfor a communications number or address of the second party, as inentries 822, 824 and 828. The information assistance may also beidentification of a concierge provider of goods and/or services (suits,for example), as in entry 830. System 10 may also provide acommunications connection between the first party, who initiates thecommunication, and the second party, as in entry 826.

Each entry 822 through 830 includes columns for a Date 834, Time 836,Description 838, Duration 840 and Charges 842 for the provided service.The bill also includes a “To” column 844, that includes respectivedestination phone numbers 846 a through 846 e for each entry 822 through830. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention,associated with each entry is a respective indicator 848 a through 848 eof the second party. The indicator may be a name of the second party,such as indicators 848 a through 848 c, for example. The indicator mayalso be location information 848 d, such as a street address, forexample. Both name and location information may be used, as well. In thecase of a concierge request for identification of a provider of goods orservices, the indicator may be the subject matter of the request, suchas “suits” 846 f, in entry 830. Other indicators may be used, as well.

In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, where there area plurality of parties associated with an account with system 10, anindicator of the one of the plurality of parties requesting a particularservice is associated with an entry for that service. For example, inFIG. 11, two parties to the account are indicated, Mary White 850 andArthur White 852. Mary White 850 initiated the requests for serviceindicated by entries 822 and 824, while Arthur White 852 initiated therequests for service indicated by entries 826, 828 and 830.

The two embodiments may be used separately or together, as in theexample of FIG. 11.

The bill may be in the form of a Hypertext Markup Language (“HTML”) orExtensible Markup Language (“XML”) file. The file may be stored oninformation database 34, in association with a user's account, or inother locations, such as in web server 36. An authorized user 38(FIG. 1) may access their bill from a web page related to their account,for example. The bill may be a web page, as well. User 38, for example,may access bill 820 via personal computer 42, by requesting the web pagerelated to their account via the Internet. Web server 36 may receive therequest and have the page retrieved and sent to personal computer 42 viathe Internet, for example. User 38 may have to enter a password and/orPIN to show authorization to access the bill. The account web page mayalso enable a user to change aspects of their account and user profile.For example, the user may add or remove communications numbers, such asphone numbers, of communications devices, such as wireline and wirelessphones registered with the account. User 38 may change theirpreferences, as well.

System 10 may provide an option to display some or all indicators inbill 820. A user may not want a requested party's name provided on abill, for privacy, for example. System 10 may have a default mode toeither display or not to display all indicators and the option may be toeither suppress or elect the provision of the indicator, depending onthe default setting. The option may be one of the preferences selectedby the user during or after registration and associated with their userprofile. The web page containing bill 820 may have one or moreactivation points to suppress or elect the option. For example, “To” 844may be activatable to reverse the default setting, suppressing allindicators 848 a through 848 f if the default setting is to displayindicators, or displaying all indicators if the default setting is notto display indicators. A button or tab (not shown) may also be providedon displayed bill 820, activation of which either suppresses or electsthe option. The option may also be presented on a graphical userinterface (“GUI”) displayed on display 48 of PC 42, for example. Bill820 may be part of the GUI, as well. The GUI may provide a button ortab, activation of which changes the default setting. An activationpoint may be activated by a pointer or a mouse, for example.

System 10 may also provide an option of showing certain indicators ofcertain parties and not showing indicators of other parties. Indicators848 a through 848 f may each be activatable to cause suppression of therespective indicator upon activation. If an indicator does not appear,clicking on a respective communications number 846 a through 846 f maycause the indicator associated with that number to appear.

A user may also select certain parties that should not be identified onbill 820. The selection may be part of a user's preferences establishedduring registration or at a later time. The user may also indicate thata party should not be identified in bill 820, before or after the callto that party. The option may be presented by an operator or voiceserver 134, after information assistance is provided with respect to asecond party and before the call is connected to the requested party,for example. Alternatively, the user may input a predetermined numericalsequence code via a keypad of a phone, to indicate that an indicator ofthe second party should not be included in the bill. Either theindicator would not be inserted in the CDR or CDRs for thatcommunication or the indicator may be suppressed or removed from bill820 prior to display. A filter may be used to search bill 820 forindicators 848 a through 848 f that are to be suppressed or removed, forexample.

Indicators 848 a through 848 f could also be made activation points tocause display of a window or pop-up box including a menu of a pluralityof options, including an option to suppress that particular indicator inthat entry. That same indicator in other entries related to the sameparty may be suppressed, as well. Information server 32, for example,may suppress or remove the indicators, if the option is selected, forexample. Other activation points may be used to provide such options, aswell.

System 10 may also offer the option of selecting the type of indicatorto be shown on the bill. For example, the user may select whether thesecond party's name, as in entries 822 through 826, or locationinformation (such as street address), as in entry 828, or another suchindicator, is used. Such a selection may be a preference selected by theuser during registration or afterwards. The option may also be made viaan activation point of bill 820, as described above. For example, themenu discussed above could include such an option. A button or tab mayalso appear on the bill, activation of which may present a menu, windowor pop-up box offering the different indicator options. A GUI may beused, as well.

System 10 may also offer the user the option to pay their bill on-line.On-line bill payment may involve clicking on a button/tab 850 presentedon bill 820. If credit card information is stored by system 10,activation of payment button/tab 850 may cause the bill to be charged tothat credit card. Activation of payment button/tab 850 could also causegeneration of a window, a pop up box or a GUI with fields for entry ofcredit card information and a button/tab to authorize charging of thebill to that credit card, for example.

System 10 may provide an updated bill on-line within a limited timeafter a call accruing charges has been made. For example, the updatedbill may be provided on-line within 24 hours after the call is made.

As discussed above, system 10 may provide directories of contactsassociated with an account or individual subscribers to an account, in afolder. The folder may be associated with the subscriber's account, inor with the user profile, for example. If there are multiple parties toan account, the contacts of an individual party calling system 10 may beidentified and accessed through a PIN or by a voiceprint of the party.System 10 may offer users the option of adding a party associated with arequested service on their bill, such as a party for whom directoryassistance has been requested or a called party, to their contactsfolder. Then, the subscriber would not have to request directoryassistance again for that party. The option may be offered via anactivation point on bill 820, a menu or through a GUI, for example, asdiscussed above.

In one example, activation of indicators 822 through 830 may causegeneration of a menu offering the option of transferring availableinformation about the indicated party, into the contacts or other suchfolder. The information may be derived from the bill or from an eventrecord (CDR) underlying the bill. Alternatively, a user may copy andpaste the indicator of the party into the folder. Available informationassociated with the indicator may include the name, street address andphone number of the party, for example. The option may also be apreference previously set up by the user. The preference may provide forautomatically adding information relating to all parties on the bill tothe contacts folder. The contacts folder may be stored in informationdatabase 34, for example.

System 10 may also automatically add available information with respectto each indicated party in the bill, into a table or another folder(different than the contacts folder), for example, in a database, suchas information database 34, to facilitate other types of customerservice for a subscriber. For example, storing such information couldenable the system to identify the last X number (where X is a realnumber) of calls made by the subscriber or find the most commonly calledparty or parties, upon the user's request. As above, the information isreadily available from the bill, the associated billing record orunderlying CDRs.

System 10 may also enable on-line customer service with respect tobilling. For example, a request for credit may be included in the menudiscussed above. System 10 may then investigate the entry to determinewhether it has been properly billed. The request may be conveyed to acustomer service department of system 10, for example. Web server 36 orinformation server 32 could evaluate the request, as well.

System 10 may determine that it is less expensive to grant certaincredit requests than it is to investigate them. System 10 may thereforeautomatically grant credit when the request meets certain criteria. Onecriteria may be the total dollar value of the requested credit. Thatdollar value may relate to the actual cost to system 10 of investigationof the credit request. Requests for credit less than that amount may beautomatically granted. Another criteria may be whether the request orrequests for credit are less than a percentage (%) of the total chargesin that bill. If the request is greater than that percentage, system 10will investigate the request prior to granting the credit. Informationserver 32, web server 36 or another processor may conduct the analysis.It may be advantageous for system 10 to grant credit requests, even at aloss, to avoid the cost of investigating such requests and to developgoodwill of customers.

Another criteria that may be used in evaluating whether to grant acredit request without investigation may be a subscriber's or associatedaccount's past history of credit requests. If a particular customer oraccount regularly requests credit, even if only for small amounts eachrequest, it may be determined that they are abusing the system's 10policy of granting automatic credits. At a predetermined point, system10 may apply a higher degree of scrutiny to requests from that customeror account. The criteria may be a combination of the above. Additionalcriteria may be used, as well as or instead of those above.

FIG. 12 a is an example of a method 860 in accordance with an embodimentof the invention, wherein indicators of second parties and, optionally,identification of initiating parties, are provided in a bill provided toa user via a network. In method 860, a billing record for an account fora billing period is received in step 862. The billing records includeindicators of the third party related to the service and, optionally,identification of an initiating party for accounts with multipleparties, as described above. The billing record may be received from abilling platform 50 via WAN 40, for example.

The billing record is formatted into a bill to be provided to aresponsible party of an account, in step 864. Billing server 32 inbilling platform 50 could format the billing record into a bill, forexample. Information server 32 could format the record into a bill, aswell.

The bill for an account is stored, in step 866. The bill may be storedby system 10 in information server 34 in association with a subscriber'sprofile, for example. It may also be stored in web server 36, forexample.

A request to be provided a bill via a network is received from anauthorized party, in step 868. The request may be received byinformation server 32 via the network, such as the Internet 46, forexample. The request may be made through a computer, such as PC 42.Authorization may be confirmed by providing a PIN and password and/orother identifying information, for example.

If system 10 provides an option to suppress (or elect) the provision ofindicators, the status of the option may be checked in step 870. If theoption to suppress has been selected, then the bill is provided via thenetwork, without indicators, in step 872. If the option to suppress hasnot been selected, and system 10 offers the option to suppress selectedindicators, the status of that option may be checked in step 874, forexample. If the option has been selected, the bill is provided withoutthe selected indicators in step 876. If the option to suppressparticular indicators is not selected, the bill is provided via thenetwork, with indicators, in step 878. As discussed above, the optionsto suppress all or certain indicators may also be requested after thebill is received and displayed by the authorized users.

Method 860 of FIG. 12 a may continue with further options in method 860a, as shown in FIG. 12 b. For example, system 10 may determine whether arequest for credit is received, in step 880. The request may be madethrough an activation point on the displayed bill 820 or on GUIcontaining the bill or a related GUI, as described above. If the requestis received, the request is processed, in step 882, for example, as isalso discussed above.

If the request is not received, or the request has been processed,method 860 may continue in step 884, where system 10 determines whetheran option to transfer information about an indicated second party to acontacts folder, is received or has been previously selected. If Yes,the party is added to the contacts folder, in step 886, as discussedabove. Information about the second party and the call may then betransferred to a database, in step 886, as is also discussed above. Ifthe option is step 884 is not selected or received, method 860 mayproceed directly to step 888.

Steps 880, 884, 888 may be performed in any order. Any or all thosesteps may be omitted (as could steps 870 and 874 in FIG. 12 a). Method860 may therefore continue from step 868, 870 or 874 in FIG. 12 a, toany one (or more) of steps 880, 884, 888, as shown.

IASCs 22 through 28 of FIG. 1 may be configured differently than theIASC 100 of FIG. 2. FIG. 9 illustrates an alternative IASP 900.Components common to IASC 100 of FIG. 2 are commonly numbered. In IASC900, call interface 902 is not connected to servicing platform 104, asin IASC 100. Instead, the functionality of servicing platform 104principally is carried out in carrier network 904. Control device 906 innetwork 904 performs similar functions as switch host computer 124, andinterface/carrier switch 908 performs not only its conventional carrierswitching functions, but also those of servicing switch 120 describedabove, under control of control device 906. Control device 906 mayinclude memory 907. Carrier switch 908 generates CDRs to document eventsconducted by carrier network 904.

In IASC 900, a communication, such as an information assistance call, isrecognized by control device 906 when it is routed through carrierswitch 908. Device 906 causes the communication to be connected throughone of pre-designated direct inward dial (DID) connections 910 toprovider 900. Control device 906 may also be connected to IASC 900 viaan Internet connection 912. The communication is received by callinterface 902 therein. Interface 902, coupled to operator telephones 112and coupled to operator terminals 114 via data network 118, includes theaforementioned ACD logic for distributing the call to an operator at oneof telephones in a conventional manner. Requests for informationassistance are handled in the same manner as described above.

In IASC 900, a requested party's name may be inserted into a CDR in avariety of manners. Operator terminal 114, VRU 122 and/or databaseserver 120, which may each have associated memory as shown in FIG. 2 andnot shown in this view, may generate a CDR and insert the requestedparty's name into a field of the CDR, as described above. The method ofthe embodiment of FIG. 3 may be implemented, for example. Those CDRs maybe correlated with CDRs generated by carrier network 904, as discussedabove.

The name and/or address or other such indicator of a requested party mayalso be provided by IASP 900 to carrier network 904 via a dataconnection, such as Internet connection 912. Control device 906 maystore the indicator in memory 907 and copy the requested party's nameinto the CDR generated by carrier switch 908, for example.

In another alternative, carrier switch 908 may be coupled to databaseserver 120 though an interface 918, in a similar manner as carrierswitch 504 is coupled to interface 512 in the embodiment of FIG. 5. Inthis case, the methods of FIGS. 6 a and 6 b may be implemented.

The communications systems described above may be implemented within-band, feature group D (FGD) type signaling, SS7 out-of-band signalingor other signaling for communications between switches (includingcarrier switches). Where SS7 out-of-band signaling is used, thecommunications systems receive the call set-up signals and call progressinformation (busy, ring-no-answer, number unavailable, answersupervision, etc.) coming from an SS7 signaling link, separate from thevoice trunk.

While information assistance service system 10 and IASC 100 are accessedvia a telephone network in the embodiments described above, it isunderstood that system 10 and IASP 100 may be accessed via other typesof networks, such as the Internet or a WAN. In the case of the Internet,the ANI may be replaced by a URL, using conventional networking andcomputer equipment.

The communications systems and their components are disclosed herein ina form in which various functions are performed by discrete functionalblocks. However, any one or more of these functions could equally wellbe embodied in an arrangement in which the functions of any one or moreof those blocks or indeed, all of the functions thereof, are realized,for example, by one or more appropriately programmed processors. Inaddition, while parties' names are stored in different memory devicesassociated with different components of the IASC 100, parties' names maybe stored in different locations in the same memory device.

While the description above primarily refers to phones, such as wirelineand wireless phones, aspects of the invention may be applicable to theuse of other types of communications devices, as well.

The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the invention. Itwill thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able todevise numerous other arrangements that embody the principles of theinvention and are thus within the spirit and scope of the invention,which is defined by the claims, below.

1. A method of operating a communications system for providing aservice, wherein a plurality of parties may be associated with membersof an account with the system to receive the service, the methodcomprising: receiving a call from one of a plurality of members of anaccount, the call including a request for a service, wherein a commonbill is provided for services rendered to the members of the account;receiving from the one party among the plurality of members anidentifier to be used to identify the one party from among the pluralityof members; providing the common bill for services rendered to theplurality of members of the account, to a communications device via anetwork; and providing in the common bill an indicator of the one partyrequesting the service, in association with a respective entry for therequested service.
 2. The method of claim 1, comprising: identifying theone party based, at least in part, on a voiceprint of the one partyreceived when the request was made and a voiceprint sample of the partystored by the system.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the system is aninformation assistance service system, the method comprising: receivinga request for information assistance from the one party, with respect toa second party.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the service isestablishing a communications connection between a first communicationsdevice of the one party and a second communications device of a secondparty, the method comprising: receiving signals to establish acommunications connection between the first communications device andthe second communications device.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein thecommunications system provides the service with respect to a secondparty, the method further comprising: providing a second indicator ofthe second party in association with an entry in the bill for therequested service.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:providing an option to either elect or suppress provision of the secondindicator.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications devicecomprises a display for displaying the bill, the method furthercomprising: displaying the bill on the display device; and providing aparty with an option of paying the bill, via an activation point on thedisplayed bill.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicationssystem provides service with respect to a second party, the methodfurther comprising: storing information related to the second party in adatabase.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the information related tothe second party is contact information and the system stores contactinformation related to contacts of the account in a contacts folder, themethod further comprising: storing the contact information related tothe second party in the contacts folder.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein the system stores contact information related to the contacts ofthe one party in a respective contacts folder, the method comprising:inserting contact information related to the second party in therespective contacts folder.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein thecommunications device comprises a display for displaying the bill andthe network is the Internet, the method comprising: providing the billto the display via the Internet.
 12. A communications system forproviding a service, wherein a plurality of parties may be members of anaccount with the system to receive the service, the system comprising:an interface configured to: receive a call from one of a plurality ofmembers of an account, the call including a request for a service,wherein a common bill is provided for services rendered to the membersof the account; receive from the one party among the plurality ofmembers an identifier to be used to identify the one party from amongthe plurality of members; and a processor coupled to the interface, theprocessor being programmed to: provide the common bill for servicesrendered to the plurality of members of the account, to a communicationsdevice via the network; and provide in the common bill an indicator ofthe one party requesting the service, in association with a respectiveentry for the requested service in the bill.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein the processor is programmed to: identify a party based, at leastin part, on a voiceprint of the party received when the request was madeand a voiceprint sample of the party stored by the system.
 14. A methodof operating a communications system, wherein the system stores contactinformation for a plurality of first parties associated with an accountin a contacts folder in a database, the method comprising: identifying arespective first party requesting the service with respect to a secondparty; inserting information related to the second party in therespective folder; preparing a bill for the account for a serviceprovided to a first party with respect to a second party; and if thefolder does not include contact information related to the second party,storing contact information related to the second party in the folder.15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: identifying therespective first party based, at least in part, on a voiceprint of thefirst party received when the request was made and a voiceprint sampleof the party stored by the system.
 16. The method of claim 14, whereinthe second party is a concierge provider of at least one of goods andservices, the method comprising: providing an indicator of the conciergeprovider in the bill.
 17. The method of claim 14, comprising: providingan indicator of the second party in association with an entry in thebill for the requested service.
 18. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising: providing the bill to a communications device via a network.19. A communications system for providing a service for a first partyamong a plurality of first parties with respect to a second party, thefirst parties being associated with an account with the system, thesystem comprising: a database to store contacts information of accountswith the system in a folder associated with a respective account; and aprocessor coupled to the interface and to the database, the processorbeing programmed to: identify the respective first party requesting theservice with respect to the second party based, at least in part, on avoiceprint of the first party received when the request was made and avoiceprint sample of the respective first party stored by the system;and insert contact information related to the second party in the folderfor the respective first party; prepare a bill for services provided tothe account with respect to a second party; and if the folder does notinclude contact information related to the second party, store contactinformation related to the second party in the folder.
 20. The system ofclaim 19, wherein the processor is further programmed to: provide arespective indicator of the second party in association with arespective entry for the requested service in the bill for the service.21. The system of claim 19, further comprising: an interface to anetwork; wherein the processor is further programmed to provide the billto a communications device via the network.
 22. A method of operating acommunications system, comprising: processing a communication between afirst communications device of a first party initiating a communicationwith a second communications device of a second party, the first partybeing one of a plurality of members of an account, wherein a common billis provided for services rendered to the members; receiving a firstidentifier to be used to identify the first party from among theplurality of members; generating an event record related to thecommunication, including an indicator of the second party, duringprocessing of the communications connection; and providing the commonbill for the communication to a communications device via a network, thebill being based, at least in part, on the event record and includingthe first indicator of the first party and the second the indicator ofthe second party.
 23. The method of claim 22, comprising: identifyingthe second indicator of the second party by searching a database for atleast one indicator associated with a communications number of thesecond communications device.
 24. The method of claim 23, comprising:storing the second indicator retrieved from the database; and copyingthe stored second indicator into the event record.
 25. The method ofclaim 23, wherein the second indicator comprises at least one of a nameand location information of the second party, the method comprising:generating the event record related to the communication, including atleast one of the name and location information of the second party. 26.A communications system for establishing a communication, the systemcomprising: an interface to: receive signals from a first communicationsdevice of a first party to process a communication with a secondcommunications device of a second party, the first party being one of aplurality of members of an account, wherein a common bill is providedfor the members of the account; receive a first identifier to be used toidentify the first party from among the plurality of members; and accessa network; and a processor programmed to: generate an event recordincluding a second indicator of the second party, during processing ofthe communication; and provide the common bill for the communication toa third communications device via a network, the bill being based, atleast in part, on the event record and including the at least oneindicator the first indicator of the first party and the secondindicator of the second party.
 27. The communications system of claim26, wherein the processor is programmed to: generate the event record;access a database correlating identifiers of communications devices withrespective indicators of parties; and insert a retrieved indicatorcorrelated with an third identifier of the communications device of thesecond party into the event record, during processing of thecommunication.
 28. The system of claim 27, wherein the processor isfurther programmed to: store the retrieved indicator in memory; and copythe stored indicator into the event record.
 29. The method of claim 26,comprising: inserting the second indicator of the second party into anoriginal event record generated by the communications system for thecommunication during processing of the communication.